Quote:
Originally Posted by Debbie
Less crime? Up the stakes as to the punishment. The death penalty is not harsh enough to deter crime.
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Problem is that it appears that most criminals aren't smart enough to think through the likely results of their crimes. I'm thinking of cases like that guy in California (?) who got a life sentence for stealing some pizza - he wasn't bright enough to think through what would happen if he committed that crime, and so did it anyway. Given that (viewed from the perspective of someone deciding whether or not to steal a pizza) life imprisonment is an extraordinarily harsh punishment, it appears that for at least a large fraction of the criminal fraternity the harshness of a punishment is not that great a deterrent.